Quarantine
by Valentine Thornton
Summary: It all starts out as a trick to get out of school one monday morning, but maybe Ponyboy is a little too good at lying. Is he gonna turn things around, or will things get so out of hand that the U.S. Airforce is involved?-  why is Dally so on the inside?
1. gonna ACT like i'm sick

Monday, august 29th

8:15 am.

I awake to:

The birds singing in the trees.

The smell of chocolate cake.

And the annoying sound, of Sodapop and Darry, trying to get me out of bed.

First Soda.

"Ponyboy, Get up you is going to be late for school!" Oh hell no! I don't want to go to school today.

I close my eyes tighter, and then cover up my head.

I don't like school anymore.

Every time I leave the classroom, groups of senior Soc's follow me around calling me fresh meat. It takes every ounce of will power in my body, not to just pull out my switchblade and show em' who's top dog!

Suddenly I hear Darry's voice

"Ponyboy get out of bed right now!" Nope. I'm just going to play like I'm sick, I mean I'm a pretty good liar. How will they know the difference?

I hear the room door open and then close again. That means Soda's out of the room.

I throw the covers off, and jump out of bed as fast as I can. Sodapop's gone to get Darry, and I have to hurry and get ready before he gets here. I'm not getting ready for school, oh no, I'm getting ready for a sick day!

I run over to the window and open it as fast as I can. On the windowsill is some strange green moss that's been there so long, that when I touched it, it turned to powder and fell off. I quickly scrape up as much as I can. Then I run over to the door, open it as quietly as possible and dodge into the restroom.

As I stare into the bathroom mirror, I get really pissed off. Damn it I look as healthy as a horse!

Well, not for long. I picked up the ashtray that always sat on the toilet, and dumped the mossy powder in it. Then I turned on the hot water to a light drizzle, and only held the ashtray under for a short second before pulling it away.

I just stared at my strange creation. It had turned out as a shade of green that I had never seen before. Moss mixed with the ashes from a cigarette. It just needs one more thing. I reached up and opened up the medicine cabinet. There sat a thermometer, some robitussin, and a big can of shaving cream. I grab the shaving cream and thermometer. I ignore the robitussin, that shit tastes nasty.

I open up the shaving cream and squirt some into the ashtray. Then I sit it down on the counter, and start to mix it all together with my fingers. It feels really gross.

I dipped my fingers into the mixture and scooped some up. Then I smeared it all over my face, and arms.

It gave me a sickly looking pale look.

I dumped the rest of that crap down the drain, then turned the hot water back on and let it run till' it got so hot it was almost scalding. Then I filled the ashtray with the hot water, and ran back into my room with it as fast as I could.

I slid the hot water under my bed, jumped in and threw the covers on myself, just as I heard voices and heavy footsteps outside my door.

"Darry, I think something's wrong. He won't get up. You think he's sick?"

"Nope he just hates Mondays." He has no idea how right he is.

"Common Dare, its gotta be more than that. I hear that there's a flu bug going around. Maybe he's got the flu!" soda sounded panicked. I laughed to myself Sodapop is already worried and he hasn't even seen me.

"Alright let's go in and see for ourselves. If he's really sick we'll call a doctor and see what's up." I hope he doesn't

I rolled over on my side just as the door opened up, and then I only had one thought in my head:

SHOW TIME!

I shut my eyes and lay as still as possible.

"Ponyboy get up, it's Monday and you're going to be late for school." Darry said sternly.

I roll over to face them giving a pained moan.

"Pony…" Sodapop's voice sounded concerned. "You look terrible."

As I answered back I made my own voice sound weak and hoarse.

"I feel terrible." As I spoke, Darry bent down and put his hand on my forehead. Then he got up and headed toward the bathroom. Probably to get the thermometer.

I guess I was pretty convincing.

I reached up to touch my face. It felt sticky and warm.

Sodapop was looking at me worriedly, and biting his nails.

What a baby.

I sit up in bed, as Darry walks back in and hands me the thermometer.

"Put that under your tongue. I'll be back in a few minutes." As he says this I do as I'm told. And then he leaves the room.

But Soda doesn't.

So I decide to kick it up a notch.

I break out into a violent coughing fit. And Sodapop panics.

"Are you okay? I'll be back I'm going to get you some juice!" he said hurriedly, and dodged out of the room.

I quickly reach under the bed, and pick up the ashtray filled with really hot water. Then I take the thermometer out of my mouth and hold it in the water. I watch as the mercury rises higher, and higher.

After a few minutes I can hear someone coming.

I take the thermometer out of the water and put it back in my mouth. Ignoring how the thermometer burned my tongue, I put a little of the water on my fore head so it would feel warm. Then I slide it back under the bed.

Darry walks into the room.

"Ok little buddy, let's see what we got here." He said taking the thermometer out of my mouth as gently as he can.

He holds it up to his face, and frowns very suddenly.

Then he yells for soda to call a doctor. Damn it.

"Well Ponyboy, looks like you're staying home today. You have a temperature of 103.1"

Sodapop runs back in with some grape juice. He hands it to me and tells me to drink up.

I never told anyone this before, but I can't stand grape juice. Every time I taste it I nearly puke.

Perfect.

I put the glass to my lips, and take three giant gulps.

And it automatically starts coming back up.

Darry must have seen it coming, because he already had the trashcan under my chin. My throat starts to burn and causes me to cough. Then I felt my cheeks bulging with hot liquid, as I emptied the contents of my belly into the trashcan.

When I'm done Darry removes the trashcan and puts it on the floor.

Suddenly Dallas walks in. I guess came over late at night, and decided to use our couch.

"The doctor will be here in a little bit." As he says this, dally spots the trashcan on the floor. And what's inside of it. "Is the kid ok? He's as white as a sheet. And his skins so pasty…" his sentence goes unfinished when there's at the door.

"well, that was fast."

**to be continued!**

**ok i know that was kind of stupid but just review anyway.**


	2. an ACTOR needs his PROPS and COSTARS!

Quarantine chapter 2

Damn! I thought I had this all planned out perfectly- but I don't! I have no idea how to pull this off. THEY CALLED THE FREAKING DOCTOR!

Oh gawd!

The doc is going to see right through me! This is not good. I can only imagine the trouble I'll be in when this is over. I will be grounded for the rest of my life! Sodapop probably never forgive me for making him worry like this and worst yet… I WILL NEVER BE TRUSTED AGAIN!

There is a knock at the door. Darry and Sodapop leave the room but Dallas stays. As soon as the door shuts behind them, he runs around the room anxiously opening closet doors and looking in the dresser. Then he started crawling around on the floor like a nut. Did he lose something? Because if he did, he sure as hell isn't going to find it in here.

"Dallas…" I wasn't really sure what to say. I started to tell him how stupid he looked and that his IQ must have gone down to negative numbers. But then I knew better than to get mouthy with Dallas Winston.

"Alright kid" Dallas said getting off the floor "I was checking to see if your room was bugged or not."

Ok, he has officially lost it.

"It's cool, your rooms clean!" What is he talking about?

"Dallas." I'm still not sure what to say. But as if he had read my mind he told me why he was acting like he had left his brain at Bucks'.

"Kid next time you want to do something like this you needs an ally. Why didn't you tell me you was gonna play sick? You know I love that kind of crap. Nothings more fun, than duping THE MAN! I was checking to see if you room was bugged because, all those social workers are always snooping around your house and… well you never know." Suddenly Dallas takes a big garbage bag from behind his back, and man is it full!

Wait a minute! Where was he keeping that?

"Ok kid Tim Sheppard is at the door, he is disguised as a doctor so I think we'll fool your brothers."

Tim wouldn't just voluntarily do this. Dally probably had to use blackmail.

Dallas reaches into the trash bag and pulls out… AN ONION? What the hell is that for?

"Here" Dallas hands me the onion "if you rub that under your pits it'll make you smell funny." Damn straight. It's an onion. What do you expect?

Dallas continued talking, and I rubbed the onion under my armpits. Yuck!

Next Dallas handed me a bag of white powder. I asked what it was and he said it was laundry detergent. (For emergencies only.) He says that if you eat a little of that you will get a fever of 106! Well the only reason I would use that is if my acting was a fail. THAT IS SO UNLIKELY!

"Tim said that he got a real good costume at this Halloween store out of town, so don't worry about your brothers recognizing him." Dallas shoved the bag under the bed. "We're kind of pressed for time right now so I'll explain the rest of the details to you as soon as I can." I was still a little confused.

"Dallas?" I said in my normal voice. "How'd you know I was faking? I mean, I thought my acting was pretty good." Dallas cocked one eyebrow, (A trick everyone seems to be able to do but Me.) and smiled his bad ass smile. "I even fooled Darry!"

Dallas looked me straight in the eye. "Kid, I'm Dallas Winston I know everything."

The truth of that last statement hit me so hard I almost didn't hear the sounds of the three men coming up the stairs.

I looked over at Dallas -who was now sitting on the edge of the bed.

Dallas told me to stay in character. If we were in a book, you could say that we were getting dangerously close to the climax in the story. And even though I knew it could mean death to the entire story line, I had a certain amount of gratitude in my heart that just had to be expressed.

"Dallas," I said as quietly as possible. "Thanks, for not ratting me out." After I said this I didn't look at him, because I'm pretty sure that was a little too mushy for the both of us.

Darry walks into the room leading a guy in a lab coat and a mask. I could tell it was Tim, but I guess that's because I was looking for proof that he was a fake.

Tim walks over and looks down at me.

He's about to say something but there is suddenly a loud hammering sound in the distance.

It gets closer and closer.

"Is that a helicopter?"

Darry looks at the doctor (Tim) incredulously.

"NO DUH! OF CORSE IT'S A HELICOPTER! WHAT ELSE WOULD IT BE?" Darry yelled.

At that moment all hell broke loose.

There was a big bang. Then we heard voices in the house, multiple footsteps coming up the stairs, and we saw both Darry and Dallas grab for a baseball bat.

Nothing…

Absolutely nothing could have possibly prepared any of us for what happened next.


	3. A SMART PERSON WOULD BAIL OUT RIGHT NOW!

**well my best friend Annie88 begged and begged so, here you go!**

**chapter three**

**it's short for suspence!**

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I looked over at Darry.

For the first time since my parents died he looked absolutely horrified.

He looks over at me and there's no mistaking the crazy protectiveness in his eyes.

I looked over at Dally, and I can't help but notice that he was looking out my bedroom window looking somewhat antsy.

I turned my head slightly and looked out the bedroom window, and what I saw made me feel like throwing up again.

The tree outside my window was scraping up against the glass, but you couldn't even hear the horrid noise it was making because of the helicopter.

That's right.

The helicopter, the one that Darry and Tim- who was dressed up as a doctor- heard. It was sitting in our front yard with its propellers spinning around making a big wind that was blowing around dust, and trash, and everything else imaginable!

It was a blue chopper with a big red plus sign on the side of it. The red plus sign had a big white circle surrounding it.

THE AMERICAN RED CROSS!

WHATS HAPPENING?

!

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**GASP!**

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**as you can see i've changes the summary, and my profile a little bit. HOPE IT MAKES ME LOOK SMARTER! AND MORE INTERESTING!**

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	4. looking into spotlights will blind you

Darry stands up angrily and jerks the bedroom door open. He was about to exit the room when a strange man walks in and pushes him out of the way. He's wearing a big freaky looking gas mask on his face that makes him look like something out of a horror movie. Darry looks the guy up and down like he's about to punch his lights out, but then calms down and asks the man who he is and what's going on. He doesn't seem at all freaked out by the mask.

Along with the creepy mask the man is also wearing a long white lab coat. On the lab coat is a name-tag that says... well I can't really make out the name on it.

I squinted, but I still couldn't read it. I squinted harder, but still the name remained nothing but a blur. I squinted so hard that my head hurt, but even then the man's name was illegible. That's strange

I probably should have paid more attention to the fact that my vision was going and I was only 14 years old, but Ididn't.- You try paying attention to something as small as that when a strange man who claims to be a secret government doctor barges into your room followed by four other guys in hazardous material suits.

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**I promise to update this real soon. saturday most definately**


	5. New Pri Madona JACKASS!

Dallas stands up with the baseball bat and starts threatening to bust the man's face in.

The doctor ignores Dallas and looks directly at Tim. Tim fidgets nervously in his doctor costume. I hope he doesn't see through Tim's disguise. That would be a mess.

I looked over at Darry and noticed the crazed worried look on his face. Darry takes the bat away from Dallas and tells him to sit down. Dallas glares at Darry and pushes Sodapop out of the way. He pulls the chair out at my writing desk and sits down.

I couldn't help but notice that the doctor hadn't shaved in a while. From underneath his Medical mask, greying stubble was covering his cheeks. How come all the other doctors with him have to be in protective suits and he gets away with just a thin paper mask? That's weird. I took in the fact that he walked with a cane. I wonder what would happen if Dallas kicked that cane out from under him.

"This child has contracted an unknown disease. We don't know how dangerous or contagious the disease is, so for the sake of the world we must quarantine this environment…" As he spoke I looked out the window and watched in horror as a big orange drape with a toxic symbol came down over the window. There were little words written under the symbol that were getting blurrier by the second. I couldn't even read them!

I heard Sodapop gasp. I guess he noticed the big orange thing that they are sealing us in with.

I couldn't stop staring at it.

"Let me out of here! I don't wanna catch whatever the kid's got!" Tim cried. (Still dressed as a doctor)

"I'm sorry, but we cannot risk letting anyone out. Just by breathing the same air as him, you might have all been infected. And If I let you out you might spread it to more people."

I finally pulled my attention away from the window.

"I'm not sick. I haven't even been here that long!" Tim tries to push past the doctor to get to the door. But one of the orange people stepped up and pushed him back. "Hey, what the fuck? Let me out!"

"They all seem very anxious..." the doctor says with a thoughtful look on his face. "Put down claustrophobia as one of the symptoms." The Doctor suddenly takes out a small orange pill bottle. He flips the lid off with his thumb and swallows a couple of the pills dry. He sticks the bottle back into his pocket.

Tim walks up to the doctor and tried to punch him. The doctor ducks the swing, grabs Tim's arm and squeezes it. Tim winces and pulls away.

"Also add aggressiveness, tender muscles and…" The Doctor leans in at Tim and sniffs. He back up, makes a face and waves his hand in the air dramatically. "PHEW! Bad Breath!"

"Who are you?" Asks Darry.

"Can't you read? Oh, that's right. You're white trash; you can't afford to go to school. I'm DOCTOR, House. And in case you don't know what a doctor is, it's…"

"Are you always this much of a jackass?"

Doctor House looks back at the orange people and they laughed.

House looks at Tim for a minute. Tim looks back at him.

"Sedate him."

One of the orange people comes forward with a syringe. Tim back away and ends up falling onto the bed. Tim looks up at me and squirms, trying to get away from me- I guess he doesn't want to get sick- he jumps back up and just ends up running into the needle. It got him right in the shoulder. Tim goes limp and falls onto the bed again.

House opens the bedroom door and yells "We need a cot in here!" then shut the door back.

He then turns back toward me. He looks around the room at Darry, Sodapop, and Dallas. Then taking a syringe out of his lab coat pocket, he said…

"Anybody else want a hit?"

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**Review.**


	6. A THERMOMETER RAPED ME!

**Well... I had planned on updating this a few dayz ago but... I got sidetracked by something really awesome that I will not go into detail about...**

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One of the doctors in the orange suits had stepped out into the hall and returned a few seconds later with the cot for Tim. Tim is now lying on an ugly grey cot that they set up on the left side of my bed. They didn't give him any blankets or anything like that, so he's just snuggled up in his fake doctor costume like a big old baby. He's suckin' his thumb like one too.

Darry was asking doctor House all kinds of questions and doctor House wasn't answering. I could see that Darry was getting pissed off…

House walks over to the right side of my bed. He kneels down on one knee, grimaces and then leans his cane against my bedside table.

He looks over at the orange people, rubbing his stubbly chin, like he's trying to decide which one of them to call on.

"Foreman! Come on down. You are the next contestant on The Diagnosis Is Right!"

One of the orange people step forward. When he got a little closer I could see through the hazmat helmet thing that he was wearing, he was a handsome black man with a shaved head.

"Alright, Foreman, I want you to take his temperature." House reaches into his lab coat pocket and pulled out a long skinny white thing with a big round end and a button. He hands it to Foreman.

Darry steps forward. He walks over to Foreman and looks down at the skinny white thing.

"Uhm, he said to take his temperature… what the hell is that for?" Darry asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"It's the thermometer," Foreman said, trying not to meet Darry's eye.

"THAT'S THE THERMOMETER? How do you take his temp with that thing?" That was a good question. I mean that thing looks like I'd choke on it he stuck in my mouth.

Suddenly House's hand shoots in the air. He starts bouncing up and down, like a little kid who thinks he knows the answer in class. "OH! OH! FOREMAN, OVER HERE! I THINK I KNOW THIS ONE! PICK ME TEACHER, PICK ME!"

Foreman sighs and tells House to explain.

"Well, first we have to get that thing lubed up real good. Then we're gonna have to roll him over and position him in a way that it'll slide right in…"

Darry had a shocked and disgusted look on his face. That means he understands… good thing, cause I sure didn't. I looked over at Sodapop just in time to see him blow up.

"YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THAT THING IN HIS-"

"It's the only way to get a really accurate reading of his core temperature… I know this is gonna be really hard to watch so I suggest you turn away…"

Dallas just sat there at the desk spacing out- I mean he is really out of it- I'm not even sure if he knows where he is. He's just staring at the picture of me, Darry and Sodapop that's hanging on the wall over my desk. I wonder what he's thinking about…

"Hey, kid, could you roll over for us?" asked House.

I rolled over onto my stomach giving a fake pained groan.

I suddenly found myself very curious about how they were supposed to take my temperature when I was rolled onto my stomach.

I looked over at Darry and gave him a questioning look. Darry sort of looked away, a weird blush spreading across his face.

Suddenly I thought I heard Doctor House say something that sounded like, "Pull down his pants." But that didn't make any sense, so I just disregarded it.

I just looked down at my pillow, suddenly very interested in the hair grease stain that was on the dingy pillowcase. Then I felt the covers being pulled off of me. I turned my head at an awkward angle, but all I could see was House's white lab coat. I noticed that he had on blue jeans and a t-shirt under the lab coat. I took in the fact that he was wearing some very expensive looking running shoes. Then I thought, why the hell does he even need running shoes? I mean, come on! He has to walk with a cane and he looks like he can barely even walk, let alone run! Yup, that's what I was thinking right before whoever was behind me pulled down my pants.

House bends down and looks me right in the eyes. "It's ok," he whispered. "I'm a doctor…"

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**RAPED! HAHAH! **

**REVIEW FOR MORE! :) LONGER CHAPTERS COME FROM MORE REVIEWS...**

**Btw... Does anybody think I should start writing Fanfiction for House? **


	7. PONYBOY? Thats a gay name!

**This chapter was actually the second half of the last chapter but I don't know what happened**...

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Now I'm sitting here rubbing my backside, while Sodapop is swearing at House from across the room. The weird thing is that this guy is completely unprofessional. Every time Sodapop calls him a name, he calls him one right back! I've never seen any other doctor who would do that. Then again, House isn't any other doctor is he?

"Stick out your tongue," Said House. "I need to see if you're a purebred."

I stuck out my tongue and he stuck one of those weird wooden sticks in my mouth and pressed down. - Frankly, I'm sick of them sticking things in me. These jerks just basically raped me with a thermometer and then they stuck this long-ass needle in my arm and took some of my blood while I was still shaking! My butt hurts! I feel frickin' violated! - While he looked at my throat, I found myself staring into his eyes… They look just like Dally's eyes.

I looked over at Dallas; he was still sitting at my writing desk. He looked somewhat confused. I don't blame him. I'm just as confused as he is. His eyes were shifting around the room, searching… searching for what?

He took the stick out of my mouth and made weird face when he noticed that half the thing was purple. Damn grape juice…

"You can close your mouth now," Doctor House said, "Are you experiencing any pain?" He snapped his fingers at the orange people and one of them ran over holding a note pad and began writing stuff down. Doctor House never took his eyes off me.

I hesitated before I spoke, making sure my voice sounded real hoarse.

"M-My throat hurts… real bad and my body's aching all over…" I stopped short and gave three loud painful sounding coughs. I heard someone wince from across the room.

The person in the orange suit was writing real fast. House just sat there staring at me. The expression on his face was unreadable. I could feel his icy eyes burning holes into me. So cold and blue, _Blazing ice cold with hatred of the whole world…_

He leans down real close to me and sniffs.

Oh god, I thought, he's gonna smell the onion…

His nose wrinkles up and he whispers "The kid smells septic" to the person in the orange suit.

"Hey…" He pauses for a moment, looking confused.

"His name is, Ponyboy," whispered the person in the orange suit… who sounds like a very attractive woman.

"I'm sorry, Thirteen. I'm not sure I heard you right. Did you just say that his name was PONYBOY?"

I heard my brothers sigh from across the room. I think I also heard Dallas mutter something about him being the world's most immature doctor.

House bursts out laughing and then grabs onto his side. I felt my face burning with anger and embarrassment. I mean the nerve of this guy! He just comes up in here and laughs at my name! It's taking all the willpower in my body not to get out of the bed, grab that stupid little cane that he walks with and cause some serious damage to his spinal Colom. I'm serious! I feel like replacing his walking stick with a wheelchair! What's real sad is that he's making me dislike my name… I love my name; it's one of the good things my parents left behind after they died. I don't need some jackass to sit here mocking it!

"THAT'S YOUR NAME? Dude, that is like, so~ GAY!"

Suddenly, Sodapop is flying out of nowhere, swearing at the top of his voice and swinging his fists around like some kind of crazy out of control weed-whacker that had somehow taken legs and was now coming after House for making fun of my name.

"SHUT UP YOU…"Sodapop didn't get to finish his sentence. The needle was in his arm and he was going limp, falling out on the floor.

Darry runs forward, falls to his knees and starts shaking Sodapop. There is this look on his face that tells you his exact thoughts: _Why does all of this crap happen to me?_


End file.
